1. Management and Decision Making
Chapter 2

2. Functions of Management- Planning, Implementation, and Control
Planning- Choosing a course of action. You need to be able to identify goals, amounts of resources available, options or alternatives.
Implementation- Starts with procuring inputs of production, including labor. Coordinating, staffing, purchasing and supervising all come under implementation.
Control- Monitoring results and recording information and comparing to a standard
Adjustment- if not meeting manager’s objectives

3. Functions of Management- Planning, Implementation, and Control
How do farm managers differ from industry managers?
Strategic Management versus Tactical Management- SM consists of charting the overall long-term course of the business. TM consists of taking short-run actions to keep the business moving along that course until that destination has been reached.

4. Strategic Management
Strategic Management is an ongoing process, seeking to find out what the business should be doing, and its steps are:
Define the mission of the business
Formulate the goals of the business
Assess the resources of the business
Survey the business environment
Identify and select strategies
Implement and refine the selected strategies

5. Tactical Decision Making
Identify and define the problem or opportunity
Identify alternative solutions
Collect data and information
Analyze the alternatives and make a decision
Implement the decision
Monitor and evaluate the results
Accept responsibility

6. Characteristics of Decisions
Importance
Frequency
Imminence
Revocability
Number of Alternatives

7. The Decision-Making Environment in Agriculture
Biological Process and Weather
Gestation Period for livestock
Makes product unpredictable

8. The Decision-Making Environment in Agriculture
Fixed Supply of Land
Most valuable resource in Ag
Must increase in productivity or compete for rental land or land that goes up for sale

9. The Decision-Making Environment in Agriculture
Small Size
90% of farms in US are sole proprietorships
Small Scale operations dominate landscape

10. The Decision-Making Environment in Agriculture
Perfect Competition
How are prices determined?
Collective action
Niche Marketing